It's my understanding that those will only help if you're actually using mySQL. (It looks like those features simply came from the original Guardian script as a one-size-fits-all thing.)

Dandello is exactly correct - pure 'anti-MySQL-injection' tools.

Here's something else that might be the case - it could be that the bot is trying to validate itself - that would go with the 'can't be found' as the 'written' file's name was truncated by all the escaped characters.

I think we need to ask 'what is the registration method'?

and look at when the .pre file is written and what opens or evaluates it.

Note: Like most others, this forum doesn't allow us to freely edit our posts or topics to make corrections as needed, so please remember to look for subsequent posts if you see any mistakes or outdated information. Sorry for the inconvenience.

It's my understanding that those will only help if you're actually using mySQL. (It looks like those features simply came from the original Guardian script as a one-size-fits-all thing.)

Dandello is exactly correct - pure 'anti-MySQL-injection' tools.

Here's something else that might be the case - it could be that the bot is trying to validate itself - that would go with the 'can't be found' as the 'written' file's name was truncated by all the escaped characters.

I think we need to ask 'what is the registration method'?

and look at when the .pre file is written and what opens or evaluates it.

its just that i have never had any string urls in any of my forums and thats from 2.3.1 and up and also on test forums where i have put the url up on spam traps and was just thinking it was stoping it in some way

YaBB install help video1. what yabb forum are you running and the url2. describe in as much detail as you can what happens and also post screenshots if you can3. please be patient we live in different time zones and have other commitments but we will help youas bill and ted say (Be excellent to each other)

I can go for months without seeing one of the super-strings in my error log, then three will show up in one day.

Of course, of greater concern for the OP is why 2.3.1 seems to have this vulnerability. I wouldn't want to recommend upgrading to 2.4 or 2.5 unless we're quite sure this is something that doesn't hit newer boards, especially as it looks like there's not much difference between the code in LogInOut.pl 2.3.1 and 2.5AE.

Or is the OP's board being hit repeatedly by the same spammer so it just looks like it's locked up. Need to see the error log to check out that one.

If you only have one solution to a problem you're not trying hard enough!

Odd that the other errors you're describing aren't showing up in the error log since they should.

Anything that throws an error to the screen should be written into the error log - unless the error log is full. (I have mine set to 500 - that's about the number of errors I see on my sites in 1-2 days depending on traffic. You may want to set yours to a higher limit and keep checking it.)

I'm still betting that a bot is trying to log in with a 'super-string' and either there's something in that string that isn't being properly caught (or was caught and removed) so it's locking up the program or they're doing it repeatedly making it look like it's locked up.

BUT, the good news is your forum probably hasn't been hacked as the error being thrown won't let them in (otherwise it wouldn't be an error.) When you catch the IP addresses of the culprits, add them to your banned IP list to keep them from trying this BS again - until they change IPs.

If you only have one solution to a problem you're not trying hard enough!

The next question - is it one login attempt causing the board to misbehave or is it multiple attempts?

I'm thinking what we may need is a mod that captures undesirable strings or overlong strings during the login/registration process and blocks them before they even get to the rest of the process. And adding parts of the domain name listed in the string to your Guardian Environment String Blocking probably wouldn't hurt.

The reason I keep talking about login is that the process goes like this:Someone registers under email verification and/or Admin Approval. Their registration info is written to a .pre file and into membership.inactive. When their account is verified, that .pre file is replaced with a .vars file and the info in membership.inactive gets split into memberinfo.txt and memberlist.txt. BUT bad characters are supposed to go through a replacement process to protect the system.

AND between those two events, if someone tries to login before getting verified, the system looks in the memberinfo.txt for the .vars for the member with those credentials, then through the membership.inactive for the name on the .pre file, then the .pre file, before deciding that 'user' doesn't exist.

Now, for whatever reason, the login process is getting bogged - maybe during the check of membership.inactive since the .pre file doesn't match.

Just a thought - have you checked the membership.inactive file through either your host file manager or FTP?

Are these new errors happening when regular members try to log in or when someone tries a 'super-string'?

What the error is telling us is that something stopped LogInOut.pl from going all the way to the end of the script like it's supposed to. But if it's only happening when a spammer is trying a super-string then that might be an error you can live with. I suspect the ultimate solution will be for you to upgrade to 2.5 at some point.

If you only have one solution to a problem you're not trying hard enough!

Dandello yep looks like a bot attack most of the Error Log is full with Quote:

Error: The validation code is not identical to that shown on-screen graphics. Please go back, reload the page (press F5 in most browsers) and try again.

66 of them and 87 Quote:

Error: username / password is incorrect. Either the username does not exist, or you used the wrong password.

and 2 ALERT!! Form Spoofing Detected coming from IP address: all out of 212 the Registration Log is sitting at 3418 pages as well

YaBB install help video1. what yabb forum are you running and the url2. describe in as much detail as you can what happens and also post screenshots if you can3. please be patient we live in different time zones and have other commitments but we will help youas bill and ted say (Be excellent to each other)